Smoke of the Dirt

I finally finished some work that's due tomorrow and I could not be more relieved. I made the final push this morning, from 9:30 straight through lunchtime. And it paid off. I can now relax. Sort of. To the extent that I can. 

Eri gave me some feedback on dealing with the boys. I think she can tell I'm kinda struggling recently. 

Kenzo and Osamu were playing and then fighting and then playing and then fighting, as they do. There's sort of a rhythm to it. At one point while I was helping them brush their teeth and comb their hair so they could head out with mama they were play fighting with the Mr. Potato bucket. Kenzo was using the bucket as some sort of a battering ram weapon and Osamu was using the lid as a shield. Well, as you can imagine within about a minute there were tears.

Osamu apparently scratched Kenzo's finger. They both up until recently liked to use the phrase, "Play with the cat, get the claws." These days they seem to have lost focus of the meaning of that ever so important modern proverb.

Kenzo wanted some attention with his scratched finger, but I just checked for blood and moved on. Eri's feedback was that I should stop and take a beat and really look at his scratch so he knows I care about it. I breathed in and exhaled purposefully. I understand the feedback. I just need to process it, mostly because I don't completely agree with it. 

I've learned over the years that I'm often the one who is wrong, so I'm sitting on this feedback and thinking it over. Eri is patient as a saint. 

I took a break to make more coffee around 11 and checked my favorite weather app. There was poll asking about jackets. Are you wearing a jacket today? If you're wearing a jacket, what kind of jacket?  I love this. You can see a chart of Miyagi Prefecture and the location of all the responses. The red dots are for light autumn jackets. The green and yellow are for heavier coats. I voted in the blue group - no jacket. At first this seemed like a great way to decide what to pack if you're going on an excursion, like into the mountains. Upon further thought, this is just a frustrating display of people who are too sensitive to the elements.

I went on a glorious post-lunch walk before Eri and the boys came home. No jacket mind you. Technically I was still just wearing the undershirt I slept in. I have never loved autumn the way I did today. It gave me goosebumps. Eri texted me while I was out that they were home and settling in for a nap, so I took that as a cue to just keep going. Every turn of every corner is a beautiful new colorscape of Tohoku fall time.

When the boys woke up we went walking to look for bugs to feed to our hungry still-living mantis. Sadly we didn't find any. The late afternoon, early evening coolness is not conducive to catching dragonflies. One of our nice neighbors we bumped into suggested we give the mantis unsweetened yogurt. 

Osamu wanted to use his bug catching net to grab some persimmons.

We played at 1-Chome Park until the street lights came on. The boys are getting good at the swings. At one point they both used their feet to stop and clouds of dirt flew up. I said, "Hey guys, don't get papa all dusty." Kenzo replied, "Papa watch out for smoke of the dirt."

Today was a national holiday. Culture Day. I wonder what other people do on this day.